Mexico Weclomes new President with the lovely flames of molotovs and responded with Rubber Bullets - Polidicks

[img]http://assets.vice.com/content-images/contentimage/no-slug/4a4ac7c48ea6990c177434a3636e7c3b.jpg[/img] [quote=VICE]On Saturday, Enrique Peña Nieto was inaugurated as the next president of Mexico inside the congress building in Mexico City. Outside the building—known here as the Legislative Palace of San Lázaro—we were trying our best to duck out of the way of projectiles, dodge rubber bullets, and avoid taking big mouthfuls of tear gas. In preparation for the uproar that seems to mark political events such as this one, the congress had been surrounded by barricades and anti-riot walls for days, while protesters from all walks of life had begun gathering since the early hours on Saturday. One of the loudest groups was #yosoy132, the student movement that erupted against Nieto during the presidential campaigns earlier this year. Organizing themselves with the Twitter hashtag #MexicoNoTienePresident (#MexicoHasNoPresident), they carried out something they referred to as operation #1DMX. Their protest was meant to be peaceful, but then the black bloc showed up and things took an ugly turn. As the situation became more violent, the demonstration split into two groups. The peaceful side gathered around a truck parked outside the San Lázaro subway station and got busy screaming, thinking this was the best way to convince their fellow demonstrators to remain calm. The more aggressive parties took to breaking walls and sidewalks with sledgehammers, throwing the blocks of rock they gathered to the hundreds of federal police officers standing behind the metallic wall encompassing the congress building. Once the first few Molotov cocktails were thrown, the cops brought out the tear gas. North from where we stood, a group tried to penetrate the anti-riot walls through an opening made by a construction truck that had driven straight into it. Soon after, we found ourselves surrounded by 500 federal police officers. It was at that point that we decided to get the fuck out of there and started walking with the peaceful contingent in the direction of the National Palace, which is located on the Zocalo, the city's main square, just a few blocks away. As soon as we made it downtown, we realized the entire Zocalo was surrounded by cops but we managed to talk an officer into letting us walk through one of the security fences at the exact same moment Enrique Peña Nieto was being sworn in as the new president of Mexico. Moreover, the number of secret service agents around was out of proportion, and it seemed that everyone protesting against the new president was being closely watched. After witnessing a fight between protesters that was stopped by cops dressed in civilian clothes, and right as the more violent demonstrators arrived to 20 de November street from San Lazaro, we made our way to Madero, the pedestrian street that leads straight to the Zocalo. Right in the corner of Madero and Eje Central, in front of the Bellas Artes Palace, we got trapped in an altercation between black bloc groups and the security forces who were trying to prevent them from getting to the Presidential Palace, where Peña Nieto was heading after the ceremony. We left the protest walking on Juarez Avenue, right at the time when the police were starting to randomly capture protesters. Random civilians who were not involved in the protest kept asking the police to remain calm. It’s still not clear what exactly happened. We have no idea why the police started shooting rubber bullets instead of using water canons and other less harmful methods of dispersing the crowds. There are also a lot of questions regarding the sudden appearance of the more radical protesters, with some proposing that they could have even been agent provocateurs, paid by the PRI (Nieto's party) as a means of discrediting the yosoy132 movement. It’s still a little too early to have a clear view on the situation, but definitely interesting to watch how the PRI moves now that it's back in power after two PAN (the opposition) presidencies. I mean, they already managed to devastate the city center on their first day in government, and that, at the very least, is impressive.[/quote] [url="http://www.vice.com/read/mexico-welcomed-its-new-president-enrique-pena-nieto"]VICE News[/url]

What the hell are they fighting for

snep

Disagreement with the election.

Silly Mexicans, will there government ever not be shit?

[QUOTE=Burgervich;38713375]What the hell are they fighting for[/QUOTE] Probably against their corrupt government. They should unite break through the wall and seize the palace,peaceful demonstrations won't change anything.

[QUOTE=Darkne55;38713398]#MexicoHasNoPresident? sounds like a bunch of idiots probably funded by gangs[/QUOTE] No one could write something more idiotic even if they tried. Just as a FYI from a mexican, the elected party has blatant links to the cartels and is known for being everything wrong with our politics. Literally. They won by paying off desperate people in rural areas with extreme poverty, mostly.

snip elect me diplomat of mexico 2012

[QUOTE=Darkne55;38713487]oh sorry i'm just still mad what happened to the last president i assumed it was them[/QUOTE] what happened to calderon?

Also, he just confirmed his stance on fighting the cartels. No signs of willing to legalize, instead the army will keep actively fighting the cartels like the last 6 years. We all know how that turned out. Boy, I can't wait for another 6 years of fear and violence.

Calderon's party (PAN - Right) lost to the PRI (Center Left), which used to be (and probably still is) corrupt and authoritarian as hell. It ran Mexico for 50 straight years, until the first free election in 2000. Poor PRD (Left), they never stood a chance.

[QUOTE=znk666;38713414]Probably against their corrupt government. They should unite break through the wall and seize the palace,peaceful demonstrations won't change anything.[/QUOTE] That would make it worse and increase the cartel's power which is the whole problem to begin with. Nothing will change until the cartels get shut down.

By the way, I love the graffiti in the picture making fun of the President's hair style. [t]http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Enrique+Pena+Nieto+Pelosi+Meets+Mexican+President+J5NrP42hWlNl.jpg[/t] His hair has a mind of its own.

[QUOTE=Foogooman;38713571]That would make it worse and increase the cartel's power which is the whole problem to begin with. Nothing will change until the cartels get shut down.[/QUOTE] True,but the current government won't do anything about the cartels either. They might even help them increase their influence.

[QUOTE=Foogooman;38713571]That would make it worse and increase the cartel's power which is the whole problem to begin with. Nothing will change until the cartels get shut down.[/QUOTE] the cartels wont get shut down until the people throw away their bought government

I was going to post about the planned protests and the Dec 1 protests in an article earlier this morning, but decided against it. Basically the situation is that Mexico's presidential election has restored the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) into power- the PRI was a CIA/American-backed semi-authoritarian semi-socialist party that ran the country since 1928, when it was known as the PRM (Party for Mexican Revolution). It took lots of hard word, but the PRI was finally overthrown by a landslide election that put the first opposition candidate into the office of the president. The PRI still held state power during the 12 years of PAN presidential power. Somewhat inexplicably, though, the PRI gained a significant lead in the elections and were reinstated to the office of the president. The previous president, Calderon, had stable approval ratings never dropping below 45% and maintaining between 48-65% approval. This clearly should have given him enough support to win the election, since Mexico has three major political parties, and the vote generally goes 3 ways with one party making a notable lead on the other 2. It was expected that the PRI would win the presidency with a notable lead, as the 60% or so that disapproved of him would be split between the PRI and the PRD. The PRI itself has incredibly low approval ratings, which perplexes researchers as to why it then won a slight lead over the PAN. The obvious answer is fraud. And that's what it points to. Basically since the day after the election, both opposition parties have been calling fraud- accusations (with significant evidence) of vote-buying, rigged elections, and intimidation have come forward. A coalition of anti-Nieto groups have had regular protests, ranging from "in the thousands" to "in the tens of thousands". The more notable of these are the PAN and the Yo soy 132 movement, which is somewhat similar to the American Occupy movement- it's made of students, mostly, and is the largest and loudest voice. Problem is, like Occupy, it's more of a clumping of several different groups with many different ideas, and so there's factionalism and disorganization. The December 1 protests became a near-riot. YoSoy says that the police aggregated first- as historically was the PRI's policy- and that they brought out the tear gas and rubber bullets long before the black-flags started any real commotion. The whole ordeal is a mess, but it works in favor of American policy so the US has shut up about it.

[QUOTE=person11;38713552]Calderon's party (PAN - Right) lost to the PRI (Center Left), which used to be (and probably still is) corrupt and authoritarian as hell. It ran Mexico for 50 straight years, until the first free election in 2000. Poor PRD (Left), they never stood a chance.[/QUOTE] Except that PRD came in 2nd, ahead of PAN.

How how nice of them. Someone tell them it's actually 19 days till the day of giving though.

Oh joy, and I'll be going there next friday for a week.

[QUOTE=Megafan;38714010]Except that PRD came in 2nd, ahead of PAN.[/QUOTE] I know, I am referring to the fact they have never won. And I am faking my sympathy, the PRD used to be part of the PRI, making it only slightly less dubious than its victorious cousin.

[QUOTE=person11;38714079]I know, I am referring to the fact they have never won. And I am faking my sympathy, the PRD used to be part of the PRI, making it only slightly less dubious than its victorious cousin.[/QUOTE] Best choice of the three IMO.

I feel bad for mexico, it's like a never ending cycle of bad things.

I'm struggling to make out what's happening in that picture posted in the OP. It looks like 2 dudes using their super human powers to fight each other, with one using the force to slam that road barricade on his enemy, while the other is creating some kind of shield with his ice powers to block it.